What Family is For
by RayneSummer
Summary: It's practically the beginning of the second wizarding war, and it's no wonder the residents of Grimmauld Place are in such dismal spirits, despite the Christmas time. But they are all a family now, and it's up to family to remind each other what they have is worth fighting for. HP story, set Order of the Phoenix.


**Universe: **_Harry Potter_

**Words: **_3,711_

**Title: **_What Family is For_

**Summary &amp; Notes: **_It's practically the beginning of the second wizarding war, and it's no wonder the residents of Grimmauld Place are in such dismal spirits, despite the Christmas time. But they are all a family now, and it's up to family to remind each other what they have is worth fighting for.  
_Note: This is my first actual Harry Potter story I've written, like, ever - despite the fact that it's one of my most loved fictional universes! Fandom friends (and actual friends, too, obviously, but they don't tell me to shut up when I go on about stuff I like, because they like it too) Miss Kirsty and Miss Carrot helped me with the ideas and helpfully checked it over for me after I had written it down on paper, then typed it up. So thanks, guys, we make a good team :) Enjoy and please review, I would like to know whether I should write some more, because I have more ideas. ~Rayne

* * *

Harry sat in the dining room of Grimmauld place, alone at the table. He was sitting hunched forward, head resting on his hands with his elbows on the table.

Even the thought of angering his relatives simply with such impoliteness – though there was no one around to be bothered about it – didn't raise a smile on Harry's face. He continued to stare glumly at the cabinets opposite where he was sitting, not really seeing the shining plates encased in the glass and wood rimmed doors.

Harry couldn't help but mope and think about how bad this Christmas seemed to be turning out. They were all due to return to Hogwarts in two days, but here he was, sulking on his own at the table.

Honestly, thought Harry, he couldn't really place why he was so miserable. Yes, he had witnessed that attack on Mr Weasly, and yes, Sirius had been hanging around morosely since after the Christmas celebrations, at the prospect of being left alone yet again.

But realising that he wasn't being possessed should have cheered Harry, and the knowledge that Arthur Weasly had made a full recovery should have at least slightly gladdened him, as it did all the others. Yet all he could think of doing was sitting here and staring and thinking things he didn't want to be.

The only thing he could currently associate with his mood was the impact that dementors made on feelings. But there were none here, and anyway, it wasn't cold or anything, and Harry knew that he had much worse memories that feeling miserable about going back to Hogwarts.

Just as he thought that, however, a candle at the edge of the table went out. Harry didn't notice at first, until another candle flame flickered as though a cold breeze had been cast over it.

Wary now, Harry sat up properly, feeling in his pocket for his wand. Just in case. His mind considered an open window or door, but mainly settled on a dementor, boggart or some poltergeist. None of which were very welcoming right now.

Another candle went out, and though Harry didn't move from his sitting position at the table, he raised his wand almost without thinking and pointed it at the only door to the room, which was slightly ajar.

The rest of the candles went out at the same time that the door to the room opened, and Harry jumped up, wand shaking a little in his hand. He was in no state to deal with anything that wanted to make him feel worse that he did.

A second later, Harry realise two things: his legs were shaking so much that he had to sink back down on his chair, and the figure in the door, that he had been pointing his wand at and fearing attack from, was simply Remus Lupin.

Feeling suddenly completely exhausted, he watched Lupin glance around the room critically for a moment, having noticed Harry's defensive stance when he walked in. Finding nothing out of place, he made towards Harry at the table, looking rather concerned.

"Why are you sitting here on your own? Are you alright?" Lupin asked quietly, swiftly sitting down opposite Harry and watching him with worry clear on his face.

Unable to directly lie to a person who cared a lot for him, Harry shrugged and stared at his hands for something to focus on. Despite resting on the table, they were still shaking slightly, and he felt a little lightheaded. Probably from being jumped out of his stupor of miserable thinking.

Lupin seemed to take Harry's silence as a resounding 'No', however, though respected him not to go into details if he didn't want to. Unsure of exactly what to say next, the former teacher and pupil sat in a comfortable enough silence.

"Did someone just come in?" Harry asked suddenly. That would explain the candles going out; of course it hadn't been something sinister. There was nothing that would try to act on Harry while he was here – apart from maybe Buckbeak if he wasn't bowed to before approach.

Frowning slightly at Harry, Lupin nodded in response to the question. "Yes, Mad-Eye just came in with Tonks. They've just finished their watch," he explained.

Harry nodded vaguely, not particularly interested in the information about new people in the house. It wouldn't make the silence more bearable.

There was a quiet knock on the door and Ginny hesitantly entered the room, Lupin and Harry glancing at her to see what she had to tell them.

"Uh, mum says it's almost time for tea, so we have to lay the table. I mean," she corrected herself, trying to hide a smirk, "she said that _I_ have to, but as you guys are here, you can help."

Harry rolled his eyes as he and Lupin got to their feet. "Honestly, all this work... anyone would think your mum likes keeping us busy," he sighed to Ginny as they all headed to the dressers to get out plates and goblets.

Ginny sniggered before explaining, "Fred and George get out of most things now, Ron's a _prefect_-" she made a face that suggested it was a terrible sin to be so- "Hermione and you are guests, plus she thinks you're delicate," she summarised, with a punch to Harry's shoulder to emphasise her point.

"Hey!" Rubbing his shoulder, he tried to ignore Ginny, who was now snorting with laughter at her bit of fun, and set plates and goblets on the table beside Lupin, who was trying to hide his smile.

He finished putting down the plates in his arms and, turning to Ginny, he added pointedly, "and I'm not delicate!"

At that defensive statement, Ginny practically doubled over with laughter, and Harry couldn't help grinning too, realising as he did that it seemed to be a while since he had smiled properly.

"Well, Hermione told me that one time Madam Pomfrey called you delicate," Ginny replied through giggles. "And you told her exactly the same thing! And she didn't believe you either."

Harry huffed, affronted. He remembered that too, obviously, and fell slightly betrayed that Hermione had told Ginny. "Whatever. Watch it, if you touch me I might die," he shot back, barely hiding a smirk. It had been a while since they had had such a laugh, even if it was at his expense.

* * *

Harry's smile faded over dinner, however, seeing the tense faces of various Order members; most of whom had simply been in the vicinity whilst Mrs Weasley was dishing up and being made to eat with the rest of them.

The meal was quiet, the space usually occupied by Mr Weasley conspicuously empty. Harry sat next to the edge of the table where Sirius was staring at his fork moodily, and across from Lupin who was deep in thought, food left on his plate forgotten.

The atmosphere was as gloomy as when Harry had first arrived in the summer, after being attacked by dementors, told nothing else, and then confronted with a grim-faced godfather who had similarly been locked up for weeks.

This time, though, Hermione was next to Harry, with Ginny beside her and Ron, Fred and George opposite the girls. Everyone was quiet and the only noise was the sound of forks against plates and goblets being set down.

Hermione, becoming uncomfortable with such a quiet meal with such gloomy expression from most people, turned to Harry. "So, what do you plan on teaching us next?" She said this quietly though, so Mrs Weasley at the other end of the table, who just began to have a quiet whispered conversation with Kingsley, wouldn't hear.

Taken rather by surprise, Harry didn't have an immediate answer, but Hermione didn't expect one. "I mean, I've got some ideas myself," she continued, disregarding Ron rolling his eyes and the twins starting their own whispered conversation. "How about that jinx that turns small things into rabbits?"

"Cute," Ginny commented, barely hiding her grin. "But why on earth would Harry know something like that?"

"Hermione made him learn loads of stupid spells last year," Ron interjected, earning a frown from Hermione, who didn't appreciate her spell knowledge and advice being criticised.

"Most of it came in helpful, though, didn't it, Harry?" she said rather defensively.

Hastily, Harry replied, "well, I certainly used a summoning charm." Fred and George sniggered into their butterbeer mugs.

With a huff, Hermione nevertheless carried on with her report. "We've done disarming, stupefying, levitating others, slowing things down, shrinking things and destroying things." Ginny smirked as her brothers all looking at her nervously.

Sirius and Lupin, Harry realised, were looking impressed at Hermione's recital about their defence techniques. "Quite a list," Lupin remarked appreciatively, smiling. "You do have excellent Defence Against the Dark Arts skill, Harry."

Never having been good at being given compliments, Harry smiled awkwardly and looked down, rubbing the back of his neck in a self-conscious manner. This made Sirius smile, and he leant forward to say, "you know, that's one way you aren't like James."

Looking up in surprise, Harry stared at Sirius. "Meaning?" he asked half-defensively. Lupin tensed slightly, very aware of how protective Harry could get of his parents.

But Sirius was in his element, talking about his best friend to said friend's son. "James would love showing off and getting compliments, especially when a certain red-haired girl was around."

Harry smiled a little at that. "I'll bet he made a fool of himself," he murmured with half a glance at Hermione – she knew all about his continued failed interactions with Cho. He didn't notice Ginny, on the other side of Hermione, hurriedly looking anywhere but Harry, eyes downcast.

"Oh yes," Lupin confirmed, exchanging an amused glance with Sirius. "And then he'd have to live through our comments the next day."

George leaned over towards Harry. "That reminds me, how did you and Miss Cho Chang get on at the last meeting?" he asked with a mischievous grin. Harry felt himself going red and he looked down again.

"Uh... she wanted to talk about Cedric, but I, uh, said that I'd rather not," he offered in reply, avoiding the main subject matter.

"And she was crying," Hermione filled in with a sigh.

"And then they kissed," Ron finished triumphantly, and the twins chortled with laughter.

"Nice," said Fred appreciatively, exchanging a high-five with George. Sirius and Lupin also exchanged a smirk, enjoying both the past and present stories of the Potter boys' love lives.

"Oh, you have a _girl_, Prongs?" Sirius suddenly said in a complete tone of surprise, addressing the air in front of him. "Have you called her your _deer _yet? To be able to fit into your 'busy' life, she must be _barking _mad." He winked at Harry, who couldn't help laughing along with everyone else.

By the time he finished mimicking his comments from years ago to the other Potter, everyone at that end of the table was practically _howling _with laughter.

* * *

The following morning, Ron walked into the bedroom the boys shared to see Harry sitting bolt upright in his bed, panting with a scared expression.

After briefly hesitating, Ron walked over to where Harry was now calming down, realising that he was safe in Grimmauld Place, not wherever the nightmare had sent him.

"Look, Harry, I know you've been down – and personally I think who can blame you – but, you know, if you need me, I'm here for you, mate."

Staring at Ron standing next to his bed, seriously telling him that there was no need to be alone anymore, Harry felt a fierce rush of gratitude and love towards his friends.

"Thanks, Ron. It mean a lot," he replied sincerely, giving Ron a small smile. He nodded in understanding.

"In the meantime," he added, walking back over to his own bed, "get dressed and we can go play chess downstairs. Well, if you want."

Harry nodded, getting out of bed. "Sure." As he pulled on a jumper that Mrs Weasley had pressed on him last night (with the point that it might stop him shaking – Harry had been a cross between irritated and flattered at this attention), he glanced around the room and did a double take.

It was definitely tidier than it had been yesterday, and probably neater than it had been for years. In fact, Harry remembered that only the other day Ron's mum had been scolding the boys for the state of their room.

"Hey, Ron," Harry said slowly, again glancing around. "Uh, is it me or is this room a lot cleaner than before? Maybe it was your mum?"

Also looking around the room, Ron looked mildly surprised. "You know, it does look cleaner," he agreed. "Doubt it was mum, though. She prefer to lecture than do it herself. Maybe Hermione."

As they headed out and down the stairs, Harry felt that Ron's tone of voice perfectly explained why Hermione, and not Mrs Weasley, would have voluntarily tidied the boys' room.

* * *

Fred and George found Harry and Ron, an hour or so later, in the kitchen, close to finishing their game of wizard chess at the table, where Harry was losing spectacularly.

Sirius, who had wandered in half-way through the game, was also there, sitting in his usual space at the end of the table. Crookshanks was on his lap, being stroked and therefore restrained from going after the chess pieces.

"Ah, Harry," George greeted him.

"We've been looking for you," Fred added.

"Yeah, we want to show you something."

"It'll give you a laugh, okay."

Eyeing the twins with suitable suspicion and apprehension, Harry failed to realise that his Queen wasn't protecting his King, resulting in Ron getting his pieces into a checkmate.

"Well, what is it?" Harry sighed, getting up. Fred and George grinned. They motioned Harry to follow them out into the landing, a curious Ron and bored Sirius in tow.

Crouching out of sight of the hall behind a door, they all watched the hallway. "We've put a wand on the floor so it'll look like someone's dropped it, and when they pick it up, the boggart we lured into that cupboard will jump out," Fred explained in a low voice.

Harry, Ron and Sirius looked at the twins. "Sounds like it'll give someone a fright," Harry said, halfway between appreciation and exasperation. George grinned.

But before he could answer, there were footsteps on the stairs that led down to the hallway. The watchers all peeked out of the door to watch.

Lupin, studying some parchment in his hands, walked down the stairs, not paying attention to his surroundings. Behind the twins, Sirius chuckled quietly. "Oh, this should be good," he murmured. "Moony should be out of practise after all these years."

Sure enough, Lupin paused at the bottom of the stairs and frowned at the wand on the floor suspiciously before glancing around. Sighing, he picked it up, and almost immediately a nearby cupboard burst open and turned immediately into a full moon.

Simply raising his eyebrows at this, Lupin sighed again, dropped the wand – which promptly turned into a rubber chicken – and withdrew his own wand from inside his robes. "Highly amusing," he commented dryly, glancing at the door where sniggering was coming from.

As Lupin waved his wand at the moon, dispelling it without words, Fred, George, Harry, Ron and Sirius revealed themselves. Chuckling, Sirius offered an apology. "Sorry, Remus, but it was rather good – would've made someone else jump."

"Quite," Lupin smiled, "someone who didn't used to hang out with the most troublesome boys ever, and is also an ex-Defence teacher."

Sirius nodded solemnly. "Yes, someone who is neither of those things." He grinned and looked at Fred and George. "Good one, boys, but Moony's right – you'll not have much luck with a Marauder."

The twins looked at the two ex-marauders in awe, "Wow, you guys are pretty cool," Fred commented, and Sirius winked at Harry, who couldn't help his own grin.

* * *

At lunch – a small affair with just the teenagers, Mrs Weasley and Sirius – Harry found himself with rather a lot on his plate. Literally. Strongly suspecting that Mrs Weasley and his Godfather had joined ranks on the one issue of getting Harry to eat properly, he glowered at the food.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the care; he just felt like they were babying him. And, as with almost everything these days, that got Harry's temper up. Not wanting to end up shouting as shouting at Mrs Weasley, he vented his feelings by not eating and glaring at his Godfather.

Catching his eye, Sirius asked innocently, "yes, Harry? I am allowed to be concerned about my Godson, you know. And other people are allowed to want to look after you."

Immediately feeling abashed for beginning to get mad, Harry instead felt a smile tugging at his lips at Sirius' perfectly named 'puppy-dog' expression.

Considering how much he and the others had had been given, lunch took a surprisingly short time. As Mrs Weasly and Hermione were putting the plates away, Lupin and Mad-Eye Moody entered the room.

Fred, George, Ron and Ginny briefly glanced up from their intimate game of wizard snap as Moody stumped towards them. Watching the teenagers while he waited for Lupin to finish talking to Mrs Weasley – something about how Tonks was coming to dinner and was determined to help out – Moody suddenly clapped a gnarled hand to Harry's shoulder.

"You all right, Potter?" he growled in his low voice, normal eye focused intently on Harry, who looked back at the ex-auror in surprise.

"Uh, yeah... I s'pose," Harry replied slightly nervously. Moody nodded and patted his shoulder once.

Gruffly, he said, "you're safe as anyone can be, given the times, alright." He patted Harry's should again, then abruptly dropped his arm and headed back towards the hallway. Lupin followed Moody, giving Harry a reassuring smile as he passed.

"...Okay?" Harry muttered to himself, bemused at Moody's abrupt reassurance. He turned back to continue watching the Weasleys' game of cards, catching his Godfathers's eye as he turned. Sirius smile at Harry's confused but comforted expression.

* * *

But the best moment of the holidays happened that evening, at dinner with practically the whole Order. Mrs Weasley was sitting very stiff in her seat, tensed. Everyone else was also sitting in silence, exchanging nervous looks with one another at each clang of pots and pans from behind them.

The reason for all of this was that Tonks had entered the kitchen earlier and announced brightly that she was going to make Harry a special pudding – "My mother's recipe," she had explained proudly.

And so it was that in the pause after dinner, everyone was sitting in a terse quiet, waiting for Tonks' so-called 'surprise'. And five minutes later, they were put out of their misery as Tonks called triumphantly, "done!"

She approached the table, levitating what looked like a messy mix of chocolate cake with nuts sprinkled on top along with a thin looking cream. If it hadn't been for the fact that there were what looked like miniature skulls with red stuff dribbling out of them around the pudding, it might have looked appetising.

"Are you sure about this, Tonks, dear?" Mrs Weasley began nervously, eyeing the pudding. "I can easily-"

"Don't worry about it, Molly," Tonks insisted brightly. "Everything's under contro- AHHHHH!"

Crookshanks had shot out from under the table in persuit of a mouse, tripping Tonks up at precisely the wrong moment. She gasped, stumbled, and dropped her wand, immediately causing the pudding plate to fall – the contents on Sirius' head and the plate itself breaking on the floor with a nasty smash.

Everyone winced as they looked from Tonks' shocked expression to Sirius. He stood up with a sigh, bowing his head so some of the cream dripped off his hair.

The silence resumed its pre-pudding state of tension as they all waited for the expected explosion. However, as Sirius raised his head, he caught Harry's eye, and smile crept on his face.

In one fluid movement, Sirius jumped forward and landed on the table, knocking over goblets of butterbeer, as a dog, where he thoroughly shook himself, splattering them all with bits of pudding and cream.

There was a chorus of "ew!"s and "_Sirius!_" and then laughter from everyone in the vicinity. The dog just wagged his tail, still standing on the table, showering Harry and Lupin with more chocolate.

"Padfoot, will you please _behave yourself_, we're not 17 anymore," Lupin said in fake exasperation, but he too was grinning along with everyone else.

Mrs Weasley then stood up, a thunderous expression on her face. The dog immediately dropped his ears and whined in a pretend apology. Everyone then had to laugh at the stunned look on Mrs Weasley's face.

Padfoot wagged his tail again and barked happily. He then proceeded to jump off the table and take a run at Crookshanks, who mewed in alarm and shot out of the door to the room.

Sirius didn't quite stop in time and crashed into the wall, but got straight back up and padded to the doorway, sitting there, staring out, sweeping the floor with his tail, panting with what Harry swore was a smile on the dog's face.

Harry felt he hadn't truly laughed like this for a long time. The whole room was full of laughter; a family enjoying themselves together. With a smile on his face, Harry felt a strong feeling of fondness for everyone around him.

They were all family. And to make hard times more bearable, make each other laugh and smile, is what family is for.


End file.
